Porn star uninvited to Pride Month

Gay porn star Brent Corrigan is available for birthday parties and fashion shows, but an attempt to book him for Yale’s Pride Month fell through.

Sean Lockhart, a well-known star in the adult entertainment industry who goes by the stage name “Brent Corrigan,” lambasted Yale students and faculty on his blog for rescinding his invitation to visit campus. Though Lockhart claimed on his blog that Yale faculty did not let him come to campus because they did not find him “appropriate,” Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trangender Cooperative Coordinator Alejandro Bustillos ’11 said the decision not to bring Lockhart to Yale was made for a variety of reasons, including an already-overbooked calendar of events. An organizer of Pride Month added that Lockhart could only come to campus one day, and planners could not find a suitable “forum” for him to take part in that day.

Lockhart, who could not be reached for comment, wrote on his blog last week: “Various esteemed professors … and a few students were vocal enough in their opposition to my presence on campus. They didn’t find me appropriate for the scholarly adults that attend Yale University.”

Pride Month organizers had a number of reservations about bringing Lockhart, Bustillos said. For one, he said that because of the many events to plan for Pride Month — 29 in total according to the Yale Pride Facebook page — organizers were already in the process of cutting some events and did not believe it was worthwhile to put extra effort into booking Lockhart.

Bustillos, who said he was not directly involved in planning Lockhart’s visit, added that the nature of Lockhart’s talk had never been nailed down and that discussions were still going on when Pride Month coordinators “scratched off his name.”

“We saw more issues with bringing [him] to campus than not having him here at all,” Bustillos said. “And we were on the rocks about having him anyway.”

Lockhart, who was the subject of scandals in recent years for making pornographic films as a minor and for making films without using condoms, might have spurred a controversy on a campus known for having groups like Community Health Educators devoted to promoting safe sex practices, Bustillos said.

“If we brought [Lockhart] to campus there might be groups that would backlash,” he said.

While Bustillos said it was true that “there was faculty involvement” in the decision not to bring Lockhart to campus, he said he did not know the nature of such involvement. The other Pride Month organizer interviewed said such involvement was limited to discussion with a college master about bringing Lockhart for a Master’s Tea, which did not pan out.

Director of the Office of LGBTQ Resources Maria Trumpler said she did not see Lockhart’s name on of any lists of Pride Month events that she had seen. Dean of Student Affairs Marichal Gentry said he was unfamiliar with the situation.

Still, visits from members of the pornography industry are not unprecedented at Yale. During Sex Week in February, transgender porn star Buck Angel spoke during a Pierson College Master’s Tea about his personal history. Two years ago, Sex Week also brought in heterosexual porn stars Ron Jeremy and Monique Alexander during a “Great Porn Debate” with opponents of pornography.

But Lockhart quipped on his blog that he had moved past his original disappointment about visiting Yale.

“I don’t fit in on an Ivy League campus,” he wrote on his blog. “I would likely leave an indelible impression that, try if they might, denizens of the school could never manage to wash away.”

Correction: April 17, 2010

An earlier version of this article, using information provided by Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trangender Cooperative Coordinator Alejandro Bustillos ’11, misreported one of the reasons Co-Op Pride Month organizers canceled a visit from gay porn star Sean Lockhart. According to both Lockhart’s manager and the student communicating with him to arrange the visit, the event was not canceled because Lockhart’s representatives requested more money than planners thought was necessary; as the article says, scheduling and fear of potential backlash against Lockhart were factors in the cancellation.